Top-class women’s network positions itself more broadly

Dusseldorf It is the top-class women’s network in Germany: Generation CEO is now also taking on three female founders, as the Handelsblatt learned in advance. The newcomers are Isabell Claus, Gesa Miczaika and Aimie-Sarah Carstensen.

Claus is co-founder and managing director of the artificial intelligence-based search engine thinkers.ai, Miczaika founder and general partner of the start-up fund Auxxo Female Catalyst and Carstensen is founder and managing director of the organizer Realtainment.

So far, Generation CEO has only taken on top female managers. With the new additions, the network wants to position itself more broadly. The Gen CEO women’s network is the most established of its kind in Germany. It was founded in 2007 by HR consultant Heiner Thorborg. The association wants to promote equal rights for women and men in business, politics and society.

The aim: to increase the number of top female managers in companies. Because, as new member Carstensen describes it: “Women have to deal with different challenges than men when it comes to company management.”

Networking should now be more effective together. “Careers look completely different today and often combine experience from the corporate world with entrepreneurship and self-employment,” explains Catrin Hinkel, CEO of Microsoft Switzerland and spokesman for the board of Generation CEO.

And Melanie Kehr, board member at KfW-Bank and also active in the network, adds: “Generation CEO gains a lot by bringing women with very different backgrounds together. Founders, entrepreneurs, managers – we can all only learn from each other.”

The Generation CEO network includes prominent top executives such as Doreen Nowotne, Chairwoman of the Haniel Supervisory Board, Sigrid Nikutta, Head of Freight Transport at Deutsche Bahn, Westenergie Head Katherina Reiche, Christina Raab, Germany Head of the IT consultancy Accenture, VW Board Member Hauke ​​Stars and Nathalie von Siemens, who sits on the supervisory board of the group of the same name.

A total of 234 women are organized in the network – and their influence in the German economy is growing. Every third generation CEO networker is now active at board level. They are also increasingly in demand as members of supervisory and administrative boards. Currently, 92 members hold one or more supervisory or administrative board mandates – that is an increase of 16 percent compared to the previous year. Nine generation CEO managers head a supervisory board or board of directors.

In addition, more and more female networkers are also entrepreneurially active. According to their own statements, the number of investment activities by female Generation CEO managers in start-ups increased in 2022. Every third member is now invested in start-ups.

These top managers and entrepreneurs form the new crop of Generation CEOs

For Lena Kilee, consultant at the Egon Zehnder HR consultancy, “it is important that more and more women join forces to support each other in navigating challenging topics that everyone knows only too well from their own experience”. Such additional, confidential networks are enormously valuable. Only together would the women break through the glass ceiling.

Influence of women in business still low

Because the influence of women in the German economy is still low. According to the Allbright Foundation, which campaigns for more diversity, only 13.4 percent of the board positions in the 160 largest German stock exchange companies were held by women in autumn 2021. The dominant men were also very similar in age, background and education. They are on average West German, in their mid-50s and trained economists.

>> Read more: Often Andreas, only rarely Anja or Ali: That’s the first name of Germany’s managing directors

At Generation CEO, new members are appointed every year after a selection process. According to the company, there were 119 applications in 2021, from which 18 were selected. In addition to the three founders, the newcomers include Uta Anders (Krones), Nina Graf-Vlachy (Puma), Anna Sophie Herken (Allianz), Olga Nevska (Telekom), Simone Kollmann-Göbels (Ströer) and Andrea Wasmuth, Managing Director of Handelsblatt Media Group.

Women’s networks are a double-edged sword

Generation CEO is not the only women’s network in Germany that is expanding. According to their own statements, “working moms”, which are aimed at working mothers, are growing at double-digit rates. In the meantime, almost 700 women in management positions have joined the circle in Germany and Switzerland.

The politically driven initiative “Fidar” welcomed its 1000th member in November 2020. Even after the introduction of the women’s quota for the executive boards and supervisory boards of listed corporations with equal co-determination, she is more active than ever.

For positioning experts like Susanne Mathony, however, women’s networks are also a double-edged sword. She says, “Networks like Generation CEO are essential for wiring and sharing with other women leaders.”

But there is a risk of the bubble, or one-sided “echo chamber,” warns the founder of the consultancy Mathony Brand Strategists. It is therefore advisable to rely on networks with men on the way up and to look for a male mentor, for example.

More: Powerful Feminine: The Impact of Women’s Networks

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